Lia dismissed Ophelia, and was soon left in a room with just herself, Rose, and Alia.
“So,” Alia said with barely restrained excitent, “you wanted to talk about us?”
“Well, Rose and I have done so talking, and we’ve decided how we want to proceed.” Lia said slowly. “We’re not opposed to adding you to the relationship, but you’re going to have to et a few conditions first.”
“I can et any condition you want.” Alia said proudly. “Tell what they are.”
Lia shared a glance with Rose. “While you have made the swarm okay with relationships with more than the normal two people, I’m not interested in a harem. If this is going to be a relationship with three or more people, it needs to be equally polyamorous.”
Alia frowned. “What’s the difference?” She asked.
“In harem, it’s one person in a relationship with everyone else.” Lia explained. “Think a king and his concubines. In what I'm proposing, everyone is in a relationship with everyone else, aning you would need to love Rose enough to want to date her, Rose would need to love you enough to date you, I would need to love you both enough to want to date you both…you get the picture.”
Alia blinked. “That’s not too bad.” She said. “I can fix that now.” She imdiately began to cast a spell, an enormous magic circle appearing beneath her.
“No changing Rose’s mind!” Lia said quickly. “It has to be natural!”
Alia paused briefly. “Don’t worry, I’m not. I’m just changing my own mind. You’ll still be my number one, but she’ll be juuust below.”
“That’s still not natural!” Lia protested. “It’s not the sa!”
The magic circle faded as Alia frowned. “Why not?”
“Because it’s not real!” Lia said. “It’ll get washed away the mont you get hit with a dispel effect!”
“No, it won’t.” Alia chuckled. “Even without my Hero power, I can make permanent transformations. And it’s not a mind-altering effect per-se, I’m literally transforming my brain to achieve the sa result.”
Lia wasn’t quite sure how to properly articulate what she was getting at, but that, at least, was an easy rebuttal. “That’s not safe! What if you ss up?!”
“I won’t.” Alia said calmly. “This isn’t my first ti doing this; why do you think I’m so in love with you?”
Lia went silent at that bomb. Alia’s love was…because she had changed her own brain? Why? Did this an everything was fake? That she really could have been anyone else, and Alia picked her at random?
“Stop right there.” Alia said. “I can figure out what you’re thinking. No, it had to be you. When I was younger and first t you, you were the first person to make feel. And the feeling grew for a while, and then…it started to go away, and that scared . So, I took matters into my own hands, and made that feeling strong and permanent. It was the best decision I ever made, and if doing it again ans getting to be with you, then I’m more than willing to go through with it.”
“B-but,” Lia stamred, “you don’t actually care about her, you just need her to to get what you want.”
“And?” Alia said, tilting her head to the side. “People want to feel different things or change their behavior all the ti. So people want to feel less angry, so people want to be more generous, so people even want to want sothing, this is no different. I want to love Rose, and that’s that.
“They say to fake it ‘till you make it, and that acting a way for a long ti will change you to be that way, so I’m really just cutting out the middleman. Besides, I’m not changing anyone else, it’s my brain, so it’s my choice, and I’m not hearing any argunts.”
She apparently ant that literally, as a zone of silence expanded outwards, catching Lia and Rose in its effect, followed shortly by a barrier that prevented them from getting closer to Alia. Alia turned her focus away from the two, then resud carefully constructing her spell, the giant magic circle reappearing under her.
Desperately, Lia began working up a counterspell, but even with Alia’s powers being bound, she was far more capable magically than Lia was, and the spell didn’t work. It wasn’t just that Alia was able to put more power into her spells, it was that her spells were better constructed; Alia had a lifeti of tinkering with the very foundation of how the system worked, while Lia really only had system-guided help in using magic for a few months.
Alia, don’t! Lia cried out telepathically. I don’t want this! As Queen, I command you to stop!
Alia smiled an infuriating smile, the one she always had when she was pulling sothing over a person, and Lia pounded against the barrier. Alia…Alia wasn’t really aware of what she was doing, it was just twisted and warped values coming –
Rose’s hand fell onto Lia’s shoulder, snapping her out of her daze. Lia looked up at Rose, who just shook her head, a sad smile on her face. D…bot…e…ad…oi
Lia frowned. The ntal communication was coming through garbled and unclear, and she was only able to pick out bits and pieces of what Rose was saying. You sound weird. Lia said. I think the silence zone sses with telepathy, too.
Rose frowned as Lia’s communication ca in, a clear sign that Lia had sounded just as garbled as Rose had. Lia began casting her eyes about the room, looking for a sheet of paper, and then the air changed, sound returning to the room.
Lia imdiately rushed over to Alia, who was patting herself down as if to shake off dust. “Alia, are you okay?!” Lia asked, carefully looking her up and down. “That was really reckless! Why wouldn’t you just listen to what we had to say?!”
“I’m feeling better than ever.” Alia said dreamily. “I’d forgotten how good it feels to gain soone else you love. And it wasn’t reckless, it was perfectly safe, I’ve done it way too many tis for it to be reckless.”
“Still, why?!” Lia wailed. “It could have just happened naturally!”
Alia shook her head. “No. You and aren’t the sa, Lia. I don’t have the luxury of being able to fall in love, if I want to feel sothing like that, I need to make myself feel it.”
“But…I thought they got rid of the Urge.” Lia said. “You should be better now, able to actually feel!”
“I haven’t felt like my feelings have changed.” Alia said. “All that’s changed is that I don’t feel compelled to not hurt people.”
Hey, it’s your favorite Goddess of Comrce, Connie. We really should have let you in the loop on this before it actually ca to a head, but she’s actually right, at least for the ti being. We made it so that the whole emotion dampening thing was removed in bits and pieces over ti. We didn’t want to suddenly bombard her with a ton of emotions right when she woke up, who knows what would have happened.
But…if you’re looking to get this little oopsie fixed, we can do that for you, for a price. Let’s say an even hundred thousand Blood Money.
Lia sighed. She wasn’t anywhere close to that amount of cash, especially not now that Connie had taken all her Blood Money as paynt for the device used to entrap Ira. She’d…she’d just have to wait.
“You could change, after a while.” Lia said softly. “That was supposed to co gradually over ti.”
Alia shrugged. “Well, I would have done this anyway.” She said. “Why bother with that whole interdiary period when I don’t have to? Anyway, you had other conditions?”
Lia looked over to Rose for help, and Rose gave Lia that sad smile again. “She made her choice, Lia. It’s hard to describe what the Urge does to you, how…dull everything is. If I had been in her situation, I probably would have ended up a similar way; I wouldn’t have wanted to let any happy feelings go, because…who knows when I would have felt them again.”
Alia smiled, walking over to Rose and grabbing her hand. “Thank you.” She said. “And…I’m sorry about our first eting, I was more inconsiderate than I should have been. Will you forgive ?”
Rose hesitated, then nodded. “For now. But you need to listen to all of our conditions before you do anything else, alright?”
Alia bead at Rose, and an odd sort of jealously bubbled up within Lia. Alia had never shown that face to anyone but her, and it felt…wrong to see her give it to soone else.
That feeling was easily squashed, however; Alia wasn’t giving that expression to just “soone else”; she was giving it to Rose, and this was, technically, what Lia wanted. She just…hadn’t been expecting it to be so sudden.
“Don’t worry.” Alia said, walking over and giving Lia a hug. “Even if I love Rose to bits, you’re still just as special to . No one could replace either of you, not even each other. Now…please, tell your conditions. I want to be with you two as soon as I can. It’s like…it’s like I wanted this almost twice as much as I did before.”
Lia hesitantly broke away from the hug and motioned for Alia to sit back down. When Alia had complied, Lia continued. “The love thing was the big one. And, while your part of that is complete for now, you still need to win Rose and myself over. I love you, yes, but as a friend; if you want to love you romantically, you’ll need to push yourself a little.”
Alia grinned. “Seduction? I can get behind that. It’ll make the ultimate prize all the sweeter.”
“As long as no ntal manipulation is involved.” Rose reminded her. “We don’t wish for that.”
“Oh, it’ll only be involved temporarily and consensually, for fun tis.” Alia smirked. “There’s all sorts of fun to be had there.”
“R-right.” Lia said. “But that brings us to our other condition. We…we need you to work on being a better person. Now that the Urge is going away, we want you to work on treating others with more respect, like Rose and I do. We know it will be a hard road, but we believe you can do it. And, if you can…well, I think you’ll be soone who we can truly fall in love with.”
Alia nodded slowly. “I…I will try my best.” She said reluctantly. “But I’ll need your help. I don’t know what treating other people right is like.”
“For now, just copy how and Lia behave.” Rose said. “I’m sure that, as the urge fades, you’ll be able to pick up on why things are done, and you’ll co to realize that doing nice things not for the sake of acting a part or for a reward is really its own reward. And, if you need help, our door is open at any ti.”
Alia paused. “Do you think you could swing things with Connie so that we can just apply the fixes they were going to put on before?” She asked. “That should make the process easier for everyone involved. I would do it myself, but…I really don’t know what is expected in that regard, not like how I know love.”
Alia paused, staring into the space in front of her. After a few monts, she shook her head. “Never mind, it would seem that’s impossible. We made a deal, and they cannot break it, even if I wish to renege. But…they say that if I make progress myself, they will welco that with open arms. In fact, Connie’s even offering a reward, leveling up your Dinsion of Discounts to the point where you can buy facilities, with the benefit of a leisure facility for free.”
“That’s a reward for you?” Lia asked blankly. “Doesn’t that just help ?”
Alia suddenly teleported over to Lia’s side. “Silly,” she said, leaning down so she was speaking into Lia’s ear, the sudden closeness making Lia blush, “everything I do is for you. And besides, you’ll be able to bring us there, too; I’m sure the three of us can find sothing to get up to in a place for leisure.”
Alia backed away, giggling slightly. “I’m going to go put together a plan.” She said. “For both improving myself and seducing you two. Just you wait; you two will be begging for to join the relationship when I’m done.” She gave them a wink, then turned and sashayed out of the room, leaving Lia and Rose behind.
“Do…do you think everything’s going to turn out alright?” Lia asked.
“I don’t know.” Rose admitted. “But I don’t think it can get any worse than it is now. And, admittedly, I think the two of us, uh, and Alia, that is, could bond over the Urge.” Rose got a faraway look as she continued. “I think…I think I would like to see her fixed.” She said. “No one deserves the Urge, and it’s been worse to her than most. I think her true self is more in line with how she acts around you, and…I could fall for that, I think.”
Rose shook her head, smiling faintly. “I think that’s enough of that for now.” She said. “I think it would be prudent to form a plan now that Ira is defeated. The other nations know of our existence, and while we certainly have a bit of ti, it’s not infinite. A plan will, at the least, provide structure for us. What do you say?”
“I say you’re right.” Lia said. “Let’s get everyone important together.”
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